Land acquisition: Court notice to centre, Delhi government

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday issued notice to the centre, Delhi government and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) after taking note of the plea filed by 172 farmers alleging their land was acquired using the urgency clause of the Land Acquisition Act.

A division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakedhar issued notice asking why the petition of the farmers, challenging the acquisition of their land in Barwala near Rohini in north Delhi, should not be admitted.

The court asked the respondents to file their reply by Jan 1, 2012.

Surat Singh, counsel for farmers, argued that the Delhi government sought to acquire their land by issuing a Section 4 notice on Nov 25, 2009 along with Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

He said that till today, the government has not done any substantial development work in the area. ‘So the claim of urgency on the part of the government was a colorable exercise of power,’ said the petition.

Counsel for the government said that farmers have already taken compensation, and hence cannot challenge the acquisition proceedings.

Singh cited several judgments of the Supreme Court that even after acceptance of compensation and declaration of award, land acquisition proceedings can be challenged if Section 17 has been wrongly invoked.